One of the newest pieces of the Henry Sinclair-Holy Bloodline mythology is the claim that Sinclair built a castle in Nova Scotia and hid the Holy Grail there. You’ll remember that “castle” from the America Unearthedseason finale where we heard that it was not only the resting place of the Grail and possibly the Ark of the Covenant but was also haunted by ghosts. They based these claims on the work of Joan Hope, which they specifically cited on the program. So, since I couldn’t find any real information about the supposed castle—which itself would “rewrite” history, despite the complete noninterest of all involved with the show—I decided to read Hope’s self-published 1997 book to learn why she felt she was sitting on a castle. I finished her book, and I am dumbfounded. Holy crap.

The short form is this: Joan Hope was apparently delusional and believed her house was built atop the ancient site of a European penis-worship cult dating back thousands of years. This site was guarded by hundreds of ghosts as well as UFOs, all of which menaced her when she got too close to the phallic truth. Henry Sinclair was neither first nor last, just another in the history of people using her home to worship penises. The long form is even worse. The background is rather complex, so I’m going to try to simplify this a bit. In some versions of the myth of King Arthur, Arthur was supposedly buried at Glastonbury, sometimes along with the Holy Grail. In the 1930s, a Masonic leader in Nova Scotia developed a pageant in which he created a fictitious story that the Masons spirited away the Grail in 1536 to escape the clutches of the English prime minister. (There were no actual prime ministers before the 1700s.) This leader, Reginald Harris, was also involved in the explorations on Oak Island, which led to the weird idea that the Holy Grail was buried in its famous Money Pit. Later, in the 1970s, Frederick J. Pohl resuscitated Richard Henry Major’s century-old argument that the Zeno Narrative told of Henry Sinclair’s voyage to America, and he identified the landing site as Oak Island. Joan Hope read Pohl’s book and decided that her backyard, near to Oak Island, must have been where Henry Sinclair built his colony. But that would come a bit later. At first she was looking for penis-worshiping Druids. She began promoting the “castle” in the late 1970s or early 1980s, where other writers picked it up, especially Michael Bradley, the author of Holy Grail across the Atlantic. In her self-published 1997 book, reporting events from the 1970s, the elderly Hope (then in her 80s) confirmed that the above-ground stones seen on America Unearthed were the remains of a seventeenth-century mansion, though she also found some very scanty evidence that the site might have been visited by the Norse of Vinland, though an ancient Native occupation at the site complicates that claim. (This amounts to some ambiguous stone tools and some wooden handles she had carbon dated to the Middle Ages, at least according to her.) But Hope, who died in 2007, was a romantic, and she believed the site to be haunted, often seeing phantasmagorical scenes of ghostly visitors, ranging from whole families of the dead to a disembodied ginger-haired head. All told, she encountered several dozen ghosts and was plagued by what she felt was a poltergeist attacking her possessions. One ghost even drew elaborate artwork on her frost-covered windows. Then, of course, she started to be visited by aliens in UFOs. She imaginatively interpreted older layers of stone on the site as the walls of a vanished castle, following Pohl, and she spun for herself a fanciful history where her backyard was the site of a glorious pageant of history. An ambiguous mason’s mark on a stone was “linked to Stonehenge,” and her yard was once a Neolithic European stone circle from the depths of time! And it was used for penis worship! Leif Erikson built a summer home atop its ruins. A medieval castle stood there next, followed by a colonial-era mansion so wonderful that Massachusetts bought it and carried it off to become the statehouse in Boston. And of course the ghosts of all watched over the site, in their UFOs. “Phoenicians, Celts, Micmacs, Norsemen and other Europeans: all had used our property through the ages, if not to build their homes there, then as a place of worship. When all this began is lost in time; but we can say that the site has been in use, often as an important centre, for at least about 3,500 years.” How lucky for her. Hope was a credulous woman, and she believed everything a local Native American told her because she believed Native people were inherently possessed of superior wisdom. One told her that her house had once been a castle completely covered in gold, and he drew her a picture of it. Right after receiving this picture she suddenly “found” evidence confirming exactly this imaginary image of a long-vanished castle. After reading Frederick Pohl’s book Prince Henry Sinclair: His Expedition to the New World in 1398—itself based on Richard Henry Major’s imaginary version of the Zeno Narrative—Hope adopted the most extreme claims for the Zeno text and concluded that Henry Sinclair built her castle, and she decided her castle was also the famous Norumbega, usually assigned to New England. Sadly, Hope was too credulous for her own good, and playing about in the ruins of a colonial mansion built atop a Native American village, she imagined a glorious Eurocentric world that never was, a romantic fantasy that fit her ghost-haunted, alien-guarded world. There is obviously no reason to privilege the medieval castle above any of her other evidence-free fantasies. But here’s the best part: She got her ideas from Frederick Pohl, who borrowed them from Richard Major, and applied them to her own house because it felt right to her! Without the preexisting alternative narrative—itself based on fabrications and lies—the “castle” would never have existed at all, and yet today in a stunning bit of circular reasoning the alleged existence of this castle is “proof” of the narrative that inspired its creation! And so, when Scott Wolter, Steve St. Clair, and Dennis Parada complain about “strange energy” and being “warned” that ghosts haunt the site, they’re just repeating Joan Hope’s bizarre claims about UFOs and ghosts. Holy crap.

Good point, and you caught it! Black Elk was neither black nor an elk...his name was totally figurative...a total fantasy and fabrication possibly hinting at skin tone, but who knows? And now, The Other J., here's where we get into the light and dark shades of elks...or not. Chuckle.

So then, Black Elk was neither black nor an elk, as the Mandans were neither black nor white, right? Well then, what could La Vendreye have meant? Exactly..

I like your extrapolation this time. Life certainly is a circle. But we keep learning as we spin, right? This is circular reasoning out of whack. But is it really circular thinking at all, or just persistence in trying to make an "evidenciary" point?

The Other J.

4/1/2013 10:56:17 am

The last time I explained a joke, someone told me I needed to go sit in a corner and think about what I did.

Don't know if you saw a response I had to someone else about Native Americans and our Western color codes for ethnicity. I'd be happy to go over it again, but the short of it is we have no evidence that with regard to skin color, North American tribes would have treated black, white red, etc. the way we modern people of European extraction do today. First it's a fairly recent invention; there's a lot of historical research out there about how the Irish and Jews weren't considered white until about 100 years ago, so "white" is hardly a stable concept. (As someone of both Irish and Jewish extraction, I'd defy anyone to look at my transparent skin and think I'm anything but white, even if my great-grandparents weren't "white".)

I wouldn't doubt that tribes today, after modern European contact from the 15th century on, assimilated modern European concepts of ethnicity and skin color (and I know that's the case with the Ojibwe -- they added that to their medicine wheel, however it still doesn't quite match up). But when we come across folktales of a white teacher, that's where we need to be very careful, because color symbolism has many many meanings in Native American culture, and those meanings were already in place before the modern European concept of skin color came into play.

On the Ojibwe medicine wheel white is associated with the north (where all their ancestors arrived from), old age (white hair), wisdom, sweetgrass, and a bunch of other things that would come from an older person who passes on their wisdom, knowledge and experience. A "white teacher" doesn't necessarily mean "white skin" as we define it in the 19th and 20th century; prior to that, it basically means an elder at the end of his or her days who passes on accumulated knowledge for the benefit of his or her tribe.

I believe you're referring to the Newport Tower in Rhode Island, which is not the same as the "Sinclair" "Castle at the Cross" at New Ross in Nova Scotia.

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Mikwaw

3/30/2013 05:22:44 am

I think like with most modern day concepts, one has to learn to recgonize 'truth' intermingled with the non-truths.
Although most of what Hope claims seems really farfetched, even to me...I can't quite dispel the ideas about early pre-columbian
visits to north america based on one fact in my
life. Where I come from, north-western Canada, my moosum (grandfather) was who I'd consider very traditional in his culture and although some non-aboriginal mooniyawak settled this area long before british colonizers, he has told me old legends about the white god who walked these lands. It never occured
to me until recently what the story really meant
Or context could possibly be about. As far as I
know the people of my culture have never been interviewed or squestered by Hope or anyone
like her, quite the oppisite in fact. I came across all of these stories and possibility links regarding land crossings, history, masons, jesuits and templars believe it or not....doing geneology research on my american mother and my native canadian
father. With IRS ( i'm assuming IRS is the
reason) many things were kept or forced quiet
in canada but so far can not find out why my mother's swedish grandfather who settled minnesota then eventually north dakota has become a cold, dead trail.
I just find all of these possibly non-related occurances as mystifying as my geneology has become and am seeking to learn more truth as I go.

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The Other J.

3/30/2013 06:51:15 pm

These sorts of stories about a 'white man' or 'white teacher' or 'white god' seem to pop up in Native American lore quite a bit, and I'm always reticent to take it on face value in terms of how we understand 'white' today (i.e. Caucasian, European). Although I can certainly see some Europeans being seen as teachers and also white, I don't know if it's that simple, or if native tribes would have even had the same concepts of and signifiers for ethnicity as Europeans did before modern Europeans ever arrived in North America.

I'm most familiar with the Ojibwe (Chippewa, Anishinaabe, all the same people), and their medicine wheel is broken up into four colors -- yellow, red, black and white. Each color represents some specific concepts:

In a lot of ways it makes good symbolic sense for a teacher to be associated with the color white, since their ancestors would have been the ones to pass down knowledge, would have originally arrived from the north (via the land bridge migration), and the north is colder and snowier and as such represents nature at the end of its age (i.e. the white hair of old age, or for some of us a weird premature thing).

If a teacher was to be symbolically represented in the Ojibwe culture, calling the person 'white' wouldn't necessarily refer to their skin color, but to their being old, learned, and intellectually and spiritually wise -- the best kind of teacher, the one with experience and wisdom (and sweetgrass), and maybe even identified by their white hair.

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L Bean

3/31/2013 07:57:08 am

Excellent comment, thanks

Garry Barnhardt

9/19/2015 02:48:24 pm

My greatgreatgrandmother qas Molly Miuse Mi'kmaq woman. Ive been searching info on her, like you and your search. Ive come up cold, but i do believe some myths are actually true events. That is why im going to travel to Nova Scotia.

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Mikwaw

3/30/2013 05:40:02 am

Do either of you know or have informatiin regarding the Knights of the Golden Circle? I was watching an episode on Decoded a few months ago and it mentions there that Jesse James was a knight of the golden circle but havn't found too much info regarding this group. Thanks in advance. As well, thanks for the newport and new ross castle info.

As a student of etymology, the name "circle clan" surely could have been born out of and influenced by the Knights of the Golden Circle, as some report that group being a progenitor.

An article from two years ago from Cincinnati talks about their hometown founder of the KGC.

"Only a few years after writing an anti-slavery novel in 1853, Cincinnatian George W. L. Bickley created a pro-slavery secret society that later became a model for the Ku Klux Klan.

The goal of the Knights of the Golden Circle was to use paramilitary force to create a slave-holding empire, including the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and parts of Central America. Havana, Cuba, the geographical center of this vast “golden circle,” would become its capital."

Ku Klux Klan 1867, American English, Kuklux Klan, a made-up name, supposedly from Greek kyklos "circle" (see cycle (n.)) + English clan. Originally an organization of former Confederate officers and soldiers, it was put down by the U.S. military, 1870s. Revived 1915 as a national racist Protestant fraternal organization, it grew to prominence but fractured in the 1930s. It had a smaller national revival 1950s as an anti-civil rights group, later with anti-government leanings.

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B L

3/30/2013 09:59:25 am

Note to self - do not buy Joan Hope's book. Seems like a waste of money.

Hey Jason:

I remember seeing photos of a supposed castle foundation at this location on some old TV show. Also, Wolter claimed that a stone foundation once existed at the site, but said that most of the stones had been removed. If I remember correctly he showed what he thought might have been a remaining lintel stone on his show. Are you suggesting that Hope arranged these rocks herself, or that an existing dilapidated building outline already existed but was just misunderstood? Thanks for the clarification.

Without examining the site myself, I cannot possibly say for sure, but the fact that Wolter didn't even bother to try to prove the existence of the castle--which would, I remind you, completely rewrite history--speaks volumes.

The only evidence Hope discusses in her book is her own interpretation of the foundations of buildings associated with a 17th century mansion that once stood on the site, as well as the wooden remains of a Mi'kmaq village. Even by her own account, such stones were believed to be part of the mansion and its outbuildings until she got it in her head that Celts, Norse, and Scots all built multiple buildings on the same site. Then any rock on the site--even ones that look naturally occurring--became evidence of lost buildings.

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B L

3/31/2013 03:36:19 am

I thought that myself as I watched that episode. Why not "prove" the prior existence of the castle? That would be enough. Instead they chose to edit a finale show where Wolter fails to find ANYTHING? Bizarre.

Christopher Randolph

3/31/2013 10:54:08 am

"Wolter didn't even bother to try to prove the existence of the castle--which would, I remind you, completely rewrite history--speaks volumes."

Yes indeed.

Thanks for keeping up the work on all of this. I was away for a week and have a great deal of the blog to catch up on.

Incidentally we were away in Belgium, where we visited several buildings dating to (and older than) the period of the supposed Sinclair Castle. Every single one of those buildings - every one of them - and these are single buildings mind you - has on display troves of archeological artifacts dug from around their foundations, ranging from pottery to human skeletal remains. Often these are found involuntarily when simply trying to repair or research the foundations of said buildings.

It's telling that the diffusionists wither find a "building" without a single arfifact, or an "arfifact" without another one nor with a building.

Jeff

3/31/2013 03:47:35 am

Reading any of your Blogs & the comments they inspire is always great fun. I am sometimes blow away by the fervor of some who reply on subjects that are so far reaching and strange . I've thought about this and have concluded that the "love of the mysterious & the unknown" is a powerful trait that runs in all humans to some degree.

I read your book, Cult of Alien Gods" on my recent trip to the Far East and I really enjoyed both the content and your style of writing. I donated your book to the ship's library before disembarking where I'm sure it will get broad usage. Thanks for writing it.

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Mary

3/31/2013 03:54:25 am

Regarding Frederick J. Pohl's archaeological research on the Viking's etc in the North East Corridor.
http://tinyurl.com/d62n524

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Anne

10/23/2014 06:34:15 pm

I want to get into so many of these discussions but I am on a Kindle and would need. To have to have several screens set up to blob with r
Each subject.Will try tomorrow.

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Jeff

12/13/2014 01:59:16 pm

Jason, it would seem that you did not achieve what Hope did, so you are trying your best to say Hope was a fraud and your are a genious. come on boy, grow up

So, Mr Colevito, it would appear that you are on the side of those in our society who "exclude" and poke fun at people who have no way to answer or give recourse on their comments.

The book was not intended to be a definitive work on the subject. Of course I am not sure if you would understand that "Colevita".

Colevita!! To call someone "delusional" because it does not agree with convention, and since she is dead, she cannot speak to your criticisms. So it is an easy target and play the righteous bully. Oh yes, you decided she was a person with no sense.

What Joan put into print is just her thoughts and sense of what she was observing. It was not the cold hard facts that history is replete with, which accounts for a very small amount of the actual events at all. It is obvious, to me at least and to others that this was a story of personal myth and legend. We all have them and they help connect to the past in a feeling sort of way, something a "fact" or groups of "facts" that self appointed officials or commentators, aka, "you", decide this is the "real" think to believe in. Have you ever read the works of Helen Creighton? She is famous for the book "Bluenose Ghosts" and records peoples stories about ghosts. It was just published and we were required to read when I was in Grade six!! I knew Helen Creighton, lovely lady, and she also knew Joan and had a lot of respect for her.

We are not talking about historical facts, instead we are dealing with a personal myth, seen in the environment of where she, Joan Hope, lives. Legends, myths and stories are the stuff which people connect with. It doesn't matter whether it is "accurate" or not. Someone told the story and people were entertained. Is that delusional? Obviously you are not a scholarly researcher, else you would not have judged Joan as such. Scholarly research is INCLUSIVE of all and anything that refers to the subject be it true, right, normal factual or not. You did not know Joan as I knew her and if anything she was not delusional. She was eccentric and there were many that loved to talk with her. She was a world traveller since she was age twelve and wrote extensive diaries until the month she died. I was the one who encouraged her to write what she had and intelligent discussion would follow and I don't know if your summation follows this.

Joan was from a farm in Sussex, Great Britain, now the UK. She weathered the entire depression, went to school and became a nurse, mid-wife and dietician in London. For her bit she used to do weekly newsletters and posted them to the "boys" who did not have a sweet heart or anyone to write during the war. She made light and kept everyone in a positive vein during such a dark time. Shortly afterwards, she acquired two properties in London and let them out, so she could further herself in her life. She packed in the nurses profession because things were changing for her and it did not suit what she wanted to do. Then she registered with a temping agency. Can you imagine the people she met and knew during that time of running a Youth hostel and lodging house in Central London? Joan scored on the Mensa levels of intelligence tests. After the war she travelled to the continent and mastered German, French, Italian, Spanish and some Russian. She travelled to Australia and lived for a year with her mum. She used to live and work in India. All of this is in her diaries. During the time of researching the Castle files, her diaries reached, by then, over 400 pages, single spaced, elite type. She wrote articles and papers, books that were never published and enjoyed her life. Joan was a simple farm girl with a passion for knowledge on all levels and about anything. Her conclusions sometimes were not so accurate but would amend them later on in the diary. This was her way to work things out that she was witnessing, much like you do in your blogs or whatever. Of course, you would not know any of that or the other things that I knew about my friend of 38 years. If she saw your comments she would not judge you as a person whose name appears on Olive Oil bottles at the common grocery. But then you never knew her nor would be interested in knowing her because of your bullish and judgemental ways. Joan was also a poet and painter, sketch artist and a humanists. She valued and included everyone and all living things. Yet you don't seem to know that; just a delusional old lady who one day piped up and rattled some dull intellectual historians in the government. When Joan met someone she was interested in them and loved their stories, dull or not. Right or wrong, factual or not. She understood the humanness that we all have, to enjoy a myth and legend. She was a simple farm girl with a passion to improve herself and those she met. She sought no station in life other than to learn and enjoy. She was a wonderful person to have tea with and often the discussions went on into

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Alessandra Nadudvari

6/12/2016 01:45:47 pm

Hello John. Would you be so kind and contact me about New Ross and Joan Harris? (Facebook, Twitter.) Thank you!

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Smith

10/23/2015 09:36:31 pm

Jason, i am a reporter, who has visited the site many a times and have had discussions with Joan. It is easy to speak bull against a person,who is dead and can not defend herself. grow up boy, educate yourself , research and learn something from her writing or may I say simple shut up. Michael Bradley, i understand stole some of her work, without her knowledge and published it for his. own glory

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john g

1/18/2016 02:03:31 pm

Not looking for it, it found me... yes the Grail Castle, the two oak islands, the place of the cross in central NS...the two rivers...found it all.

I know where the Castle is....and it is still standing....IN NS...no where near the 'Money Pit Oak Island'

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Jeff Smith

9/22/2016 09:02:20 am

Jason Colavito - She did all this not for profit, unlike Bradley who stole her work for profit. I have a doctorate in historical research. I met Joan Harris nee Hope and have been over the New Ross Site several times and have met many like you who plate out criticism but accept none. Joan is long gone, the burning candle has melted away but the light she gave continues to spread. It is this light that I am here to defend because she can not and people like you take advantage of the dead. Read John Nauss'e comments, meet him, educate yourself, learn to respect others. Criticism for the sake of criticism show you up as an ignorant, illiterate, unreasonable person, which I am sure you are not. You are just trying to use her to make a name for her as did Micheal Bradley. I feel sorry for you.

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derrufo

11/21/2016 07:22:45 pm

you mr jeff smith might do well to know that this researcher Jason Colavito saw fit to make sure your words stayed in this site...I would commend the researcher Mr Colavito for a big heart and an open mind...He is engaging in making sure all views are seen here. I am quite impressed ! And no I never met the man or read this site til this day...

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About Me

I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.